Bow Down To The Queen
by Achelina
Summary: After graduation, Caroline starts college with her two friends, but she doesn't feel satisfied. She is a vampire and she wants to do something more with her life. So she hits the road and ends up in NOLA, where she knows there is someone who promised her everything she is looking for. Canon 'till the end of season for, except some of the characters didn't die.
1. Chapter 1

College was great, really great. It was everything Caroline had always thought it would be: there were classes and parties, and frat boys always hitting on her. She was sharing a room in the dorms with her two best friends and every night was like a sleepover party. The girls talked about boys, they painted their nails and watched movies with a bowl of popcorn on their laps.

Elena was with Damon – finally – and she was all giggling smiles and heart-shaped eyes. They had spent the summer together, while Stefan had taken a road trip to try and forget that his ex-girlfriend was now with his brother. He had been completely unsuccessful, of course, but at least now he could bear to look his brother in the eyes without going all fangs and dark veins.

Bonnie was still with Jeremy and finally they were both alive and well. They had both been through so much that they had all the intentions to not waste a day of this peacefulness that had surrounded Mystic Falls in the last three months.  
>To be honest, it had been pretty dull around there lately, and everyone was starting to remember how things were before vampires and werewolves and doppelgängers had arrived in Mystic Falls.<p>

As for Caroline, she was extremely bored. She hadn't heard of Tyler in months - months! - and she honestly didn't know where they stood. She was surely not considering him her boyfriend anymore, but everything was always so confusing and unclear with him. He was somewhere in freaking Canada, looking for god-knows-what kind of cure for hybridism or something. The first two weeks Caroline had been calling him, telling him he had to come back and enroll in college, but Tyler had never called her back. So she had taken the hint and let him go - he surely had a lot of business to figure out on his own - and she wasn't going to be that girl that just sits around and waits for her man to come back and give her life some meaning. She was a strong independent woman and it was about time she started acting like one.

Caroline had kept herself busy by getting ready for college, buying all the books she needed for her classes, redecorating the impersonal room they were given and generally spending time with her mother, since her friends were often too busy with their boyfriends to hang out with her.

But, as time went by and classes started, she soon realized she wasn't where she really wanted to be. Now that all their messes had been cleaned up, what was holding her still in Mystic Falls? She was a vampire, for eff's sake! She could be anywhere she wanted, doing everything she wanted - and she was still in her hometown - going to some college and studying something she didn't really care about. The blonde had all eternity to go to college, now she wanted to achieve something more in her vampire life, do something funny and reckless, experience new and exciting things, something that was so unlike her. Caroline had always thought that college would have been exciting, that she would have enjoyed all the new experiences and that time of self-discovering everybody kept talking about, but it just wasn't working for her. She felt completely out of it, like she didn't belong there, no matter how hard she tried to pretend like she was enjoying herself. Maybe pretending to be human just wasn't as fulfilling as she thought it would be.

And, one day, very early in the morning, she woke up and - noticing she was the only one that had slept in her own bed that night - she got up and started packing. The blonde-haired vampire threw everything in her pink trolley, showered and donned a comfy pair of shorts and a t-shirt before she left a note to Bonnie and Elena.

"I need a break. Sorry I didn't tell you guys in person, but it was a last-minute thing. I'll keep in touch. xoxo, Caroline."

Exiting the room, pulling the trolley with her, she wondered how long it would pass before her friends actually noticed she was gone, but Caroline immediately shrugged that thought off: she didn't care. She was doing this for herself, and it was none of their business. The blonde would have called them eventually, as soon as she would have decided where she actually wanted to go, other than "away from here".

Getting into her car, she took a moment to call her mom, explaining why she was doing what she was doing. Liz surprised her, being understanding instead of mad or homicidal like Caroline had been afraid she would be. Then, reassured by her mother's kind words, she fastened her seatbelt and started the engine of her car. Heading to the highway, Caroline began to wonder where she could go. She actually hadn't thought about it too much, just wanting to get away from her dull routine, but now that it was time, she had to make an actual decision. Many places popped into her mind while she kept driving, many cities she wanted to visit, but three locations kept shoving their way through her thoughts: Rome, Paris, Tokyo. Caroline wanted to see all of them, and only one man had promised them to her.  
>Making another rushed decision - one she hoped she wouldn't regret - she turned her car, heading toward New Orleans.<p>

* * *

><p>First of all, New Orleans was a crazy mess. And she loved it. The minute she arrived, she was surrounded by music and dancing and people. Caroline had never felt so alive, not even when she was actually living. Everyone was loud and messy and everything always seemed out of control. The neurotic vampire should have hated it, being the control freak she was, but no, she loved it. Walking around the French Quarter she ended up in a parade, where people kept cheering and dancing. Caroline laughed, admiring the wonderful costumes and colors around her, until she finally got out of the sea of people and she managed to enter a pub.<p>

Her hair was messy and she had the dirt of the day-long journey on herself, but she didn't find it in herself to care. She found an empty barstool, and she sat down, waiting for the blonde waitress to serve her. Caroline ordered a drink, starting to feel the need of some liquid courage, while she looked around the place.

Some band was playing jazz music and there was a guy that looked like he was going to pass out if he kept blowing into that trumpet that hard. A couple was hiding into a dark corner, making out like their lives depended on it. A group of guys around her age was around a table, and they looked like they had had one beer too many, but they still kept drinking, laughing at the dirty joke one of them had made. And then there was a couple of tourists, who looked like they were on their honeymoon. Both were making googly eyes at each other and the man had just brought the woman's hand to his lips to kiss it.

Caroline felt a stab of pain into her chest, witnessing such an intimate moment. She missed Tyler, or maybe she just missed having someone to love and who loved her back. Maybe here in New Orleans she would find that too. Laughing at herself for her stupidity, she gulped the remainder of her drink. Did she even hear herself? She was strong and independent and her first instinct had been to come looking for a man that probably didn't even remember her name. The young vampire had freed herself from the restrictions of a normal human life, from the responsibilities and expectations of her friends to explore the world and find herself, but she had come to Klaus, the annoying yet perfect villain of her story. What was wrong with her?

Quickly paying for her drink, the blonde girl got up, leaving the pub and reentering the flow of people that had kept going in the streets of the French Quarter. Not anymore in the mood for singing and dancing, she snuck into a dark alley that was empty except for a few rats that were running behind the trash bins.

She sighed, what was her next move? Stage one had been a complete failure and she was once again alone and without a purpose. Walking fast, she went from an alley to another, staying away from the mess of people that invaded the streets. But suddenly, while she was walking, Caroline realized she wasn't alone. Not in the mood for games, she turned around, not at all surprised that the alley still looked empty.

"I'm not in the mood. Leave me alone and I won't hurt you." She said, to the dark shadows. A laugh filled the space, and she swore she knew that laughter, until a certain dark-haired Original vampire stepped forward into the light.

"Kol." Caroline said, recognizing him.

"Glad you remember me, sweetheart." He told her, taking a step in her direction. "What are you doing exactly in our city? Please, don't tell me you have problems back in Mystic Falls and you came to bring them here. We are kind of tired of getting involved in your messes." She opened her mouth, wanting to argue that most of their problems lately had been caused by them, but she decided against it, preferring to stay silent and end this conversation as soon as possible. Caroline was still hoping she could leave New Orleans quietly.

"No, no, nothing like that! I was going…" She stopped in mid-sentence to think of a city that could suit her itinerary, but she had always been quite bad at geography, and in that moment nothing came to her mind. "ehm, somewhere else. I just stopped by to get something to eat, you know… And I'm already leaving. I don't want to cause any trouble, so if you could keep quiet about this meeting I would appreciate it." She said, making it quite clear who she wanted Kol not to utter a single word to.

"That would be rude of you, don't you think, love?" Another accented voice intervened, as a tall figure stepped out of the shadows. "Hello, Caroline."

* * *

><p>Hi, this is my first fanfiction about Klaroline, and it's my first one in English, so please be patient with me, okay? Hope you liked this first chapter! :)<p>

Thank you to LoveDria who beta'd this chapter! :)


	2. Chapter 2

Guys, I'm so grateful for your reviews and all the follows and favourites, you are so great! But I have a problem: since English is not my native language I cannot publish the second chapter without a beta to help me and now I find myself beta-less. So you might have to wait a while for the second chapter! I have already written it, so it's not my fault :/ I apologize to every one of you. And thank you again, you made me happy! :)

Rachele.


End file.
